Clean and Sober, Evan Tanner Poised for Summer Return

One-time UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner (32-7 MMA, 11-5 UFC), just a few weeks
removed from a disappointing UFC 82 loss to Yushin Okami, has agreed to
a summer return, and he’s already accepted an opponent.

Tanner posted the news on his official website, evantanner.net, stating
that he and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva had just spoken about the fight.
However, he didn’t reveal an opponent or a return date for the summer
event.

Tanner stated that it’s “good to have a fight scheduled” again because “the
last two weeks have been really rough.” Tanner suffered a second-round
knockout via knee at UFC 82, which soured his long-awaited return from a
two-year layoff.

Soon after the loss, Tanner wrote an inspiring blog entry about overcoming his alcohol addiction, saying he was both thankful and relieved that the defeat didn’t cause him to relapse. The addiction, which prompted the break from MMA, had previously caused him to become malnourished, and his teeth even began to loosen.

However, while admittedly embarrassed after the loss, he says he won a bigger battle when he returned to the locker room that night.

“It would have been so easy to have picked up the bottle again in that moment, to have made the decision to go back to (alcohol),” he wrote. “That moment, in the silence of the dressing room, faced with crushing disappointment, numbing embarrassment, and that heavy sadness, I faced the old demons. I felt so low, as if everything had been lost. I wanted to drink. I faced those old demons again, and I beat them down. I won the battle, and I won the war.”

He vowed a return and a desire to reclaim the middleweight title.

And he’ll have a chance to do it. In an interview with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) earlier this year, Tanner said he had signed a new, four-fight deal with the UFC that went into effect before UFC 82.